World chip sales rise 4% in August

Global sales of semiconductors rose four per cent during August - small by past standards but the year's biggest sequential jumps, according to the latest figures from the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA).

August saw sales total $13.42 billion, up from July's $12.9 billion and June's figure of $12.5 billion. While the month-on-month growth through the calendar year hasn't been great, the trend is at least upward.

Year-over-year sales increased 12.5 per cent from August 2002's revenue of $11.93 billion.

Microprocessors and memory propelled August's increase in sales. CPU sales rose 7.8 per cent sequentially, and DRAM sales grew 11 per cent - both a result of the 'back to school' sales period.

Flash sales rose 6.9 per cent, DSPs were up 4.7 per cent and sales of what the SIA calls Consumer Application Specific Standard Products grew 5.3 per cent month on month.

All major territories saw increased chip sales, including the Americas, which bought 2.5 per cent more semiconductor products that they did in July. That's not bad when you consider the region has seen flat or negative growth for much of the year. Asia Pacific saw the biggest increase - sales were up 6.4 per cent sequentially - followed by Europe (up 3.8 per cent) and Japan (up 1.6 per cent). ®